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Draxhall Jump Signs With Energy Entertainment

Draxhall Jump’s “The
Vault” was published as a limited edition comic last summer and
introduced “Legends.” For those that missed it CBR exclusively
presents this online reprint.

You’ve seen their take on “Ultimate DC” in the pages of Wizard
magazine. Their character designs are found in animated shows like
“Transformers: Beast Machines” and “Action Man.” They’ve
redesigned the G.I. Joe toys for Hasbro. Their comic works have been published
by Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image, to name a few.

is the six-year-old studio/publisher/idea factory founded by comic book artist
Ken Lashley. Now they are the latest stable of comic book talent to sign a
management agreement with Hollywood concern Energy Entertainment.

Energy’s Daniel Alter told Comics2Film/CBR News that he’s been eager to sign
Lashley and company after recently becoming reacquainted with his work.

“I’m a huge Ken Lashley fan, from way back in the ‘X-Men: Age of Apocalypse’
days,” Alter said. “The
first title Energy signed to manage was the chart-topping ’10th Muse,’ which he
penciled and Marv Wolfman wrote. It was for those reasons, that it was required
reading as far I was concerned when it came out.”

Energy’s involvement
with Tidal Wave, which also led to the development of the recently announced
“Isis” movie, started Alter’s pursuit of Lashley and Draxhall Jump.
Greg Parkin, who heads up the business development aspects of Draxhall told C2F
that Alter’s enthusiasm for the comics medium was a big factor in signing with
Energy.

“We’ve been approached by many people to do representation. In all
honesty Energy’s resume was very impressive, especially when you consider how
long they have been in business,” Parkin said, “I also got along with
Daniel really well. He really loves the content. He was really excited about our
work. I can’t imagine sending someone out there to sell our properties who
really aren’t excited about it.

“We like people who are cool and
who are excited about this stuff because that’s the way we are.”

Parkin tells us that branching out into other media has always been part of
the game plan for Draxhall Jump. The pact with Energy will help facilitate that.
“We basically have a library of intellectual properties that we’re
developing here, live-action, animated series, quite a few things,” Parkin
said.

Last year, Draxhall Jump self-published their first title,
“Legends” as a single-issue comic. A graphic novel follow-up is due
out this summer. Alter sees great potential with that title.

“‘Legends’ is an event film waiting to happen. It’s a mythological spin on the
‘X-Men,'” Alter said. “The Shadow Corps [who appear in the graphic
novel] have a lot of
parallels with the Sentinels in the X-universe (and think it’s safe to say we
all wish those baddies were showing up in ‘X2’ this summer).”

Other Draxhall Jump concepts in development include “Mission:
Octane,” which spins the Shadow Corps out of “Legends” and “Jaekada,”
which maps vampire-hunting mythos onto the culture of the ancient Incas.

Further, Draxhall Jump goes beyond being a simple art studio. Their
impressive staff gives them the ability to deliver complete works, going from
story to pencils to inks and colors.

“How that benefits our relationship with them is the next step in the Energy
model for working with comic book creators,” Alter said. “Not just going out with existing
material, or even counseling them on the development of new material based on
our knowledge of the buyers marketplace, but being able to develop visually
enhanced pitches to sell/set-up as film or TV projects.

“These will have an added
value to a buyer based on the promise of being turned into a comic book series
or graphic novel that will deliver a built-in fan base by the time the project
reaches the live-action medium on the big or small screen.”

Parkin said he looks forward to seeing where the relationship with Energy
takes Draxhall Jump. Whatever the net result of the relationship is, he’s
confident that it will only enhance the studio’s creative ideals. “We’re in it for the fun. We’re in it for the experience and see where it
takes us.”

Look for more comics from Draxhall Jump this summer. Version 2.0 of Draxhall.com goes live today.